Guides

How Will the Changes to A Levels Affect You?

You may have seen or heard reports about changes being made to A Levels in England. So what on earth is happening? And how will it affect you? Here’s our guide to what’s changing.

by
Amy Davies

First Published:

28 Jan 2016

We’ve spoken to three education experts to help clear up some common concerns. We have a spokesperson from the Department for Education (DfE), Jeannette Smith from tutoring agency Regency Tuition, and Kylie Hazeldine, Assistant Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment at Buckinghamshire New University.

Essentially, the main change occurring is the “decoupling” of A Levels and AS Levels. So while, for now at least, AS Levels aren’t being scrapped entirely, they will no longer count towards a full A Level and will be an entirely separate qualification.

You can still study for AS Levels alongside your A Level, and different subjects have different dates for when these changes are coming into effect - just to make it even more confusing. You should speak to your teacher(s) if you’re at all concerned.

The other big change is moving from a modular approach to being tested at the end of the year (for AS Levels) or two years (A Levels). This gives you less opportunity to do re-sits, or submit coursework towards your qualification. This arguably makes them tougher, but also arguably fairer as it means that you can’t do endless resits until you get it right.

Here are some common questions about the A Level changes, and answers from the experts.

If AS Levels no longer count towards an A Level - why do they exist at all, and is there any point in taking them?

A DfE spokesperson told us, "Retaining the AS will continue to add breadth and flexibility to A Level programmes, and will continue to encourage the take up of strategically important subjects (for example AS Further Maths which is often required for medical school admission)."

Meanwhile, Kylie Hazeldine, Assistant Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment at Buckinghamshire New University points out that AS Levels still have their merits, "From a widening participation perspective, some students from disadvantaged backgrounds have been able to use their performance at AS Level to demonstrate their abilities and positively impact their predicted grades which form part of their application. Success at AS Level can also provide a student with the confidence to continue down a chosen subject path. We have seen this in applications made to our University."

Jeannette Smith, from tutoring agency Regency Tuition agrees that AS Levels can help bolster an application for some, "Some of the top universities have never used AS levels for applications, so nothing will change for them.

"For most other universities though, they want to be supportive and welcoming to students, so they'll be doing their best to reassure anyone who's worried. Most of them probably won't expect to see AS levels presented alongside A levels once they've been decoupled, but will look at them (and any extended essay type work) in case of not meeting the entry requirements - so they'll still be an advantage.

"The change may well affect schools more, who might instigate mock A Levels in order to get a more accurate predicted grade. This will vary from school to school though."

What impact will the new changes have on my university application? Should I be worried about how universities will deal with the transition?

Jeannette Smith believes that universities are already prepared, "I think universities sympathise with the necessity of changing the AS/A level structure, but I'm also aware that many universities have reservations about how these changes are being made and explained to students. Given the inflation of A Level results in the past few years, there does need to be some change of tactics to adjust this imbalance (which can work out unfairly for International students).

"Moreover, for many top universities (Oxbridge in particular) AS levels do not really count for very much as they don't use UCAS points. As long as the students come equipped, understanding the new rules and knowing what's expected of them, universities are more than capable of dealing with the new rules and applications in an effective and transparent way."

As sitting an AS level will no longer be a requirement, some universities will need to consider whether to change their admissions processes. "We have been and will continue to work with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, UCAS and other higher education organisations to ensure universities understand these changes," a Department for Education spokesperson told us.

"AS grades only form one part of a range of information available to universities about prospective applicants. They also look at prior attainment at key stage 4, teachers’ assessments and personal statements. Universities set their own admissions requirements. They therefore have and are reconsidering their admissions requirements in the light of the reforms, and many of them have published statements on UCAS’s website to provide information for schools about their admissions requirements."

It’s good to discover that universities are taking on board the changes already, for example, Kylie Hazeldine says, "We have conducted a full review of our admissions processes in light of these qualification reforms, not just at A-Level but at GCSE level too. This review process also covered the implementation of a new UCAS tariff.

"Our key concern is that no individual applicant is disadvantaged because of factors that may have been wholly out of their control such as curriculum choices made by their school or college."

"Like many other universities, at Bucks we provide students with an opportunity to pursue a wide range of vocational degrees. Given the breadth of the courses we offer, we use a variety of assessment methods," Kylie Hazeldine explains.

"What is common to all courses is our commitment to successfully transition learners into the university environment. This will be particularly important for those students who have only been exam focused prior to starting higher education. Key to our transition programme is that we equip our students with the necessary skills to be self-led independent learners in whatever course they study."

Although some may be worried about how an exam-led course may impact their studies, Jeannette Smith says that such courses can prepare you for different ways of learning. She told us, “Exam-led studying has been our way of doing things in UK for a while now, and whilst these reforms might well exacerbate this, I don't think it's a drastic change.

"Depending on what and where students study, they may well find that university is actually less exam-focused than school, giving them opportunity to pick up and drop modules and explore different subjects more easily. At least these A Level reforms will prepare them for whatever's ahead, be it exam-led or not!"